For a comedy, it takes itself too seriously- perhaps writers Paul Feig and Katie Dippold were worried that they didn’t want to make the characters too goofy in case it reflected badly on women in science. There is an appointed goofy character Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), who is hit-and-miss kooky. There’s a great bit where Holtzmann is dancing in her lab to Rhythm of The Night (which ironically is the song playing in my mind when I came out); McKinnon’s performance is a lot funnier when silent but the film doesn’t take that opportunity to make the most of the actress’ skills. Yes, it subverts stereotypes by having male bimbo receptionist Kevin (Chris Hemsworth, who ironically is the most consistently funny) but then Leslie Jones is stuck playing Patty, the trope of the sassy black woman, so it’s moot as to whether the film has done anything for female stereotyping. It hasn’t made it worse but it’s not the step forward that non-misogynist audiences wanted it to be.
Politics aside, for some odd reason director Paul Feig seems to treat the film as the building of a successful franchise rather than a light goofy comedy. There’s a very corporate feel about the film; it didn’t try to replicate the charm of the original, which was a good move, but it didn’t have its own charm.
Most of Ghostbusters’ problems could be worked out with a good sequel, but that would take a different director/writer and different co-writer. Perhaps it's time for a remake of a remake...